News Headlines - 20 January 2021

▽Foreign visitors to Japan fall 87 percent in 2020 to a 22-year low : The Asahi Shimbun

The Japan Tourism Agency on Jan. 20 announced there were 4,115,900 foreign visitors in 2020, a decrease of 87.1 percent over the previous year... Last year’s figure is lower than even 2011 when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami unleashed major destruction. Still, 6.21 million foreign visitors came to Japan that year.

▽Alibaba shares jump as Jack Ma resurfaces after 3-month absence - Nikkei Asia

Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding, surfaced on Wednesday in his first public appearance since a speech in October that led to the suspension of a huge initial public offering for Ant Group, its financial services affiliate.
Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares jumped as much as 10.6% during afternoon trading after the video's midday release. The stock closed up 8.5% at HK$265 while other group companies and Chinese tech shares posted strong gains.
In the 50-second video clip published on the Zhejiang Newspaper Media Holding Group website, Ma, in a casual dark blue sweatshirt, addressed a meeting of village teachers.

▽Home Office urged to explain 150,000 arrest records wiped in tech blunder | The Times

Priti Patel has been urged to explain an “extraordinarily serious security breach” after The Times revealed a technology blunder wiped more than 150,000 fingerprint, DNA and arrest history records off police databases.
The error may allow offenders to go free because biometric evidence left at crime scenes will not be flagged up on the Police National Computer (PNC).

▽UK set to step up coronavirus vaccinations | Financial Times

Britain could have enough coronavirus vaccines to give jabs to more than 500,000 people each day next week, under plans to dramatically accelerate the UK programme that were revealed in a Scottish government document... The document, published online by the Scottish government on Wednesday, was later withdrawn, but it showed that vaccines supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna are scheduled to arrive in significant quantities until the early summer.

▽Amanda Gorman's Inauguration Poem Transcript, 'The Hill We Climb'

On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman became the youngest person to ever read at a presidential inauguration. The 22-year-old poet laureate recited her poem, "The Hill We Climb" to a crowd that included President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, her husband Douglas Emhoff, and Barack and Michelle Obama.